Sykotyk

6 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

Bears are considering a stadium across the street from Soldier Field.  

Isn't the big knock against the Soldier Field area the lack of 'mixed-use development' they all love so much now? That and parking is minimal?

It's interesting to see that this league is not trying to 'feminize' the baseball team's identity in the city and instead going with their own unique names, looks, colors, etc.

7 hours ago, Germanshepherd said:

Wow. 
 

The team was looking pretty good, this has to be something scandalous. 

No good can come of this. Not with that wording. 

1 hour ago, Dilbert said:

So does this mean ESPN dumps ESPN+?

Keep it as a standalone. Though they're killing the golden goose. Drive by viewers are gone with this. 

12 hours ago, GDAWG said:

So what was the point of having a TV deal with Stadium when there have not been any games played on Stadium?

Don't quote me, but in the chat of one of the games on Youtube, it was said the deal with Stadium backfired and they ended it. Guess it wasn't up to their standards or something with what Stadium was willing to do for the games/league.

No clue if that's accurate, but that's what was said.

2 hours ago, tohasbo said:

I don't think they've been put in the programs in at least a decade other than the roman numeral-less version.  I'm 99.95% certain the last time the official logo was included was in the Super Bowl XLIII program.

SIDEBAR:  I'm trying to work on getting all of the programs from 32-up to 49 (I have some of those from within that time frame)

Used to collect them from 29 to maybe 37 or so. Missed a year and then didn't restart. Used to be able to find them at stores now if anywhere is just the markets of the teams in it. 

3 hours ago, Digby said:

Kinda surprised that MetLife gets the final, although I suppose it makes sense to nudge it as east as possible for timezone reasons, and you can't beat New York from a hosting amenities perspective, even though public transit from there to MetLife is a nightmare.

Noon kickoff in MetLife. 9am pacific. Gives Europe an early evening to late evening kick. 

15 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

Since Omaha has been mentioned for NHL expansion, I wonder if an NHL team can get this type of attendance in Omaha?

Without a team in KC, and the closest other teams being St. Louis, Minnesota, Colorado and Dallas (in roughly all directions)... I would think an Omaha team could do quite well. They would 'own' the market all to themselves as the major team. Though Cornhuskers are huge there, they'd not be in the same city as UNL... so they might get more to 'stay home' and watch the local team (even at NHL prices) than drive to Lincoln for non-football sports or to not go to a minor league event in Omaha.

But they could only support ONE major league team and really position themselves as a regional/state team. Trying to draw from Sioux City through Kansas City, from western Nebraska through to Des Moines. And that hurts with Iowa Wild being in Des Moines. Hard to promote yourself there when the AHL team there is named/colored/logoed as one of your would-be rivals.

Would be interesting as I think "Nebraska" would disengage Iowa, southeast SD, northeast Kansas and NWMO potential fans. But would really anchor them to being Nebraska's team. NE has 1.9m people, Omaha metro area (which intrudes into Iowa) has just over 1m. Hard to get folks west of Norfolk/Grand Island/etc to travel, but it would definitely help with viewership numbers to brand as Nebraska. Nebraska/Colorado, Nebraska/Minnesota in NHL would probably carry-over some rivalry.

2 hours ago, CitizenTino said:

If you were hoping for the NFL to do anything more creative with the Super Bowl field design, better luck next year.

 

 

Doesn't look ready to go. So Chiefs with the yellow endzone, 49ers will have red, presumably? And are we having the 12" border of green now, or will they go up to the white lines?

2 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

In the picture in my last post the player in red is the libero for the team in white.

And--as I was a novice to this sport before the PVF--I believe the libero cannot score a point, either. Has to be another player to get the ball across the net to score. If I understood it right.

3 hours ago, Jezus_Ghoti said:

The 4 Chiefs patches is hilariously stupid

1 hour ago, AgentColon2 said:

I’ll be curious to see how this second matchup will look in comparison to the first. Both are being played on natural grass.

 

The Giants and Patriots are real close, but the fieldturf in matchup 2 gives it away.

 

The Cowboys and Bills were very easy to tell the matchups apart. One under Sunny Cali skies outdoors on grass while the other in a dank, dark dome on astroturf.

Thought of this one again. All-time Super Bowl Rematches:

Miami Dolphins- Washington (VII, LA Coliseum; XVII, Rose Bowl)

Pittsburgh Steelers-Dallas Cowboys (X, Orange Bowl; XIII, Orange Bowl; XXX, Sun Devil Stadium)

San Francisco 49ers-Cincinnati Bengals (XVI, Silverdome; XXIII, Joe Robbie Stadium*)

Dallas Cowboys-Buffalo Bills (XXVII, Rose Bowl; XXVIII, Georgia Dome)

New England Patriots-St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams (XXXVI, Superdome; LIII, MBS, Atlanta)

New England Patriots-Philadelphia Eagles (XXXIX, Jacksonville; LII, Minneapolis)

New York Giants-New England Patriots (XLII, U of Phoenix Stadium; XLVI, Indianapolis)

Kansas City Chiefs-San Francisco 49ers (LIV, Joe Robbie Stadium*; LVIII, Las Vegas)

Of the matchups, PIT-DAL has happened three times. SF-CIN almost happened three times with SF's loss to LA in LVI. It was probably also the biggest surprise one until CIN made it to a third Super Bowl.  If you're outside the Philly fan base, I'd say that the NE-PHI might be the most overlooked multi-SB matchup if only because the first game in Jacksonville may only be remembered for Owens' antics and how underwhelming the game was for being as close as it was. Only DAL-BUF was in back-to-back years. Only one has featured a team that has relocated. MIA-WAS had probably the most noteworthy outcome (undefeated season) but the fact these two played twice seems entirely forgettable.

And onlyi one matchup has happened in the same venue twice: PIT-DAL in the Orange Bowl. Luckily. the Orange Bowl hosted five Super Bowls. Two on grass, the third on turf (BAL-DAL) and the two PIT-DAL games back on grass.

But in recent years, it feels like this shouldn't happen with the parity in the league. Yet, here we are with the same teams facing off just four years after the first.

16 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

Rough travel week for San Diego.

 

 

Honestly, the biggest early knock against the PVF is their scheduling. Some teams will have 3 games, while others none? The same team playing twice in a weekend (Atlanta and this week San Diego).... I know it was short notice scheduling to get the league going this year.  But some type of 'opening weekend' that premieres all (or as many) as teams as possible feels wrong.

4 hours ago, HOOVER said:

 

They only wore metallic Gold pants during that uniform era from the late 90's to around that time.  Historically, they'd always worn a flat tan/gold pant.  Montana/Rice era for easy reference, but they wore them long before that, too.

Wasn't the 'shiny pants' a relic of that particular manufacturer (Reebok?). Cleveland had the shiny orange pants and a reason many fans didn't like them specifically. Some teams need shiny, though. New Orleans for example. Matte finish just looks rough. 49ers look better with matte as long as the helmet isn't too shiny.

7 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

I’m really so excited to hear about how they overcame so much adversity when [checks notes] Their QB didn’t get every single call go his way and he got really mad about it. And when they had the off the field distraction of [checks notes again] their tight end deciding to date the  most famous musician in the world. Gonna be so great to hear how they overcame all of that and came together as a team. America’s team, in fact. 
 

It’s amazing how quickly they overtook the Pats on the annoying scale. Hokey ass Walmart Patriots. 

I have family that are Chiefs fans from Missouri (and one that married in in PA that just always was a fan).... one of the most annoying fan bases ever. Even back under the Grbac days. I knew if they won a title, they'd be beyond annoying. Now having two titles in three appearances... yeah. They're so much worse than Pats fans. At least Boston area fans have a lot of success in other sports, too. KC had one run with the Royals and it's all Chiefs beyond that.

13 hours ago, Frylock said:

I’m not sure if I can link a Facebook post here, but the Oregon Black Bears have released their ticket prices and seating map. Those endzones… 

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/yVmaiRPyR9FREy27/?mibextid=K8Wfd2
 

 

Can't be worse than the old Rome Renegades layout:

(watch the very beginning to see the endzones)

3 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

The regular season has not been great for the Chiefs but they always step it up in the post season.  

Cool under pressure. They've been there now so many times they don't sweat it. Baltimore is amped up and you can tell Lamar is struggling a bit. Made a great TD pass when he panicked on the rush, but then gave up the easy fumble strip sack.

5 hours ago, BBTV said:

Football is the hardest sport in the world to explain the rules to someone.  "The rule is this up until 2 minutes left in the 2nd q, then it changes, then goes back to it for the next 25 minutes of the game, then with 5 minutes left, it goes back to what it did in the last 2 mins of first half."  "You can do x within 5 yards of the LOS, unless the QB does y, in which case you can only do  x within a yard (or whatever)"

 

It's no wonder it's not more popular world wide.

Lack of rule consistency is an issue.  And since the NFL, which is marketing the sport, is in charge of their own rules and not an independent body, they make rule changes ONLY for game flow and time restrictions of broadcasts instead of consistency of rules and what makes for a better game.

They also sped up the game but then added more commercial slots.

On 1/26/2024 at 7:57 AM, Burmy said:

Lexington's Atlantic League team has been purchased by the owners of the Greensboro Grasshoppers and Kannapolis Cannon Ballers.

 

As such, the "Counter Clocks" are officially one-and-done.  The new (maybe old?) identity will be unveiled on February 15...the promo campaign until then says "It will be Legendary."

The Lexington Barney Stinsons?

1 hour ago, who do you think said:

 

Absolutely not. 2.7 million people in the region* puts them on par with St. Louis, Charlotte, Sacramento, San Antonio. You could probably drop the NFL and their 8-9 home games per year in there (disregarding the Sunday issue of course), but adding just one of NHL or MLB would be tight, let alone both.

 

*That's just the statistical area info from Wikipedia, their TV market probably sucks because there isn't jack beyond those SLC outskirts.

The Wasatch Range is where most of the people would be (Logan/Tremonton south to Spanish Fork. Yeah there's Park City to the east,... but that's the basis for the actual ticket buying fan support. You would get a lot of mormon support from surrounding states and the rest of Utah. You'd see a huge territory of southern Idaho, western Wyoming, northwest Colorado, and east/northern Nevada that would support a Utah team in terms of TV eyeballs. But they won't be going to many games if they live further than an hour away.

Baseball relies on regular, repeat attendees AND a huge regional draw of people going to maybe 1 game a year and otherwise just being a fan through TV. A market like SLC has too few 'regional fans' to draw numbers, and you'll tap out of regulars in the area pretty quickly. You're not getting 20k a game after the novelty wears off in a year or two.

RSL moved to Sandy in the new venue and it might as well been Evanston, Wyoming. The fan support dropped and that was still in that I-15 corridor and not at all away from the growing southern suburbs. Even a perfectly centralized MLB stadium near the spaghetti bowl with easy freeway access won't draw enough from outside SLC proper to make it work long term with other teams in the market. They could, but they'd be Pittsburgh level. With another team? No chance at all.

8 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

Through the first couple of matches, I'm more optimistic on the PVF than I had been before the season. They seem to have their stuff together on presentation and fan experience.

 

I just hope this doesn't turn out to be another AAF, where everything looked really polished and thought through out of the gate and then it was "Oops, we forgot to have money."

I'm also curious how much a potential future competitor might be siphoning off financial support that could be better utilized to keep just one league afloat.

5 hours ago, dont care said:

Is it though? Who goes to Las Vegas and says “let’s go watch a baseball game outside in the devils :censored:, and not stay inside gamble, strip clubs, watch shows, or sports indoors.”

Not exactly. Someone from the visiting team's fan base will be like "Hey, let's go to Vegas for vacation this year. This particular week. The Tigers are in town." You're not getting that much with any other city except maybe New Orleans.

14 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

is SLC big enough for an NHL expansion team and an MLB expansion team?

I don't think so. Baseball is a tough sport for a market to support. Las Vegas can do it because it's a destination city that will rely heavily on transplants and visiting fans. SLC is not that. If they JUST got baseball and nothing else, they could conceivably make it happen. But MLB and NHL to go along with the Jazz (and count RSL, too).... that would be tough. I think the two new teams if they happened close together would cannibalize each other.

1 hour ago, dont care said:

Go on chevys own site, starting price is 63000

Guy's getting confused on which Corvette that is in the photo. Appears to be a 2024 Stingray. Not the ZR1.

1 minute ago, 4_tattoos said:

Second game of the season has Grand Rapids in navy blue (libero in white) vs Columbus in black (libero in red). Both teams' dark jersey has red and yellow/gold numbers. This could have been avoided. Hopefully the league steps in so there is no clash going forward.

Just too much dark in these matches. Supernovas had bright vibrant colors but a lot of white. This game is just dark. The court surround is all black, the stands aren't lit up so they look dim. And the two teams wearing dark uniforms.